Going to look at a small round baler - any opinions on a New Idea 484?

Due to increasing problems with the reliability of our custom baler (to clarify, he is a guy who has baled hay for us for over 20 years), it looks like we are finally going to have to get into rolling hay ourselves. We have always square baled hay, but like many other folks, we are finding it increasingly difficult to round up a crew to haul it. I love the convenience of feeding square bales, but just a few days ago, with lots of hay down and a lot of rain coming, our normal guy's baler suffered a catastrophic breakdown. We couldn't find anybody else with the time to square bale it, so we got a fella to come over and roll it (5x5 rolls).

This is the first time that I've handled round bales with my tractor (Kioti DK 45). I picked up a 3 pt. hitch bale spear on the way home, and my tractor can handle the rolls okay, but it will be a lot tougher in the winter when the ground is muddy.

There's a gentleman not far from the house that has a New Idea 484 baler for sale. He says it makes 4x4 or 4x5 bales, and he is getting rid of it because he has moved up to a larger tractor and baler. I spoke with our (relatively) local Agco dealer, and they said it is a pretty good little baler and gave me the names of several guys that own and use them. Most of them are in my situation, that is they are only feeding a few cows, not large herds. The said that a couple of the guys run them with 35 and 40 horsepower tractors, and as long as you don't mind going slow, it's not a big deal. I would plan on running it with either my Dad's DK 55 or a Ford 5000.

My question is if any of you guys have been around any of this equipment? The Agco dealer said that as far as they know, all parts are still available and they are pretty simple, reliable balers. The current owner guesses that the bales he makes are about 600 to 800 pounds, depending on the hay. I will be storing the hay inside, so spoilage should not be a concern. I just want to be able to handle the hay easier in the winter, even if I have to make a few more trips.

I would also love to hear any other recommendations for older rollers that make a small bale. My budget is $5,000 or less, so I'm obviously on the lower end of the spectrum. I appreciate the advice.

Re: Going to look at a small round baler - any opinions on a New Idea 484?

I was going to go look at the baler yesterday, but the seller was busy baling with his new baler yesterday evening. He said that he had just bought a New Holland 850 and was going to use it last night and make sure he was happy with it before he sells the New Idea. He's going to contact me today and let me know if he still wants to sell the New Idea and if so, we can get together and look at it this evening.

Incidentally, I noticed Ken Sweet has a similar unit for sale on eBay, if anyone is curious what one looks like.

Re: Going to look at a small round baler - any opinions on a New Idea 484?

I like the new idea but its a soft core baler that needs some power to finish the roll. The rolls are 5 wide and 4 tall its easier to haul a 5 tall and 4 wide roll. 70 or so hp would be ideal in my opinion,
If the selling guy was buying a NH 850 he is going back in time and bigger.
I would look for a newer model maby a 4643 of someting similiar if you want New idea. A NH 630 would probably be more suitable newer and simple.

Re: Going to look at a small round baler - any opinions on a New Idea 484?

I went to look at the unit about 10 days ago and have been out of town since. I believe it was a mid 80's model, but is in extremely good condition. The current owner is the grandson of the original owner and said that as far as he knows, if it hasn't been rolling hay, it's been stored inside, and it looks the part. All of the original decals are present, 99% of the paint (that isn't on wear surfaces like the inside of the chamber). It does indeed make a 5' wide by 4' tall roll. It has electric tie and the monitor box and wiring appears to be in great shape.

The seller picked up the NH 850 so that he could make bigger bales and he is more familiar and prefers the older chain rollers as opposed to belt rollers. He has been using a Ford 5000 to roll. I did note that all of this equipment (For 5000 and and older Ford 641 maybe) as well as cutters, rakes, bushhog, trailer, planter were all in his barn and in very similar condition to the New Idea roller, so he appears to be a gentleman that takes care of his equipment.

We made a deal on it and I'm planning on dragging it home this afternoon. The good news is that it is only about 20 miles from the house and I can travel backroads the entire way, except for about 2 miles on a state highway, so hopefully I won't get too many mad motorists behind me. Also, I had asked him if I could hire him to come over one afternoon when I was ready to start rolling and show me how to use it. He replied that he couldn't be hired to do that, but he would do it for free.

Re: Going to look at a small round baler - any opinions on a New Idea 484?

Good news! I went last night and got the baler. It took about and hour to drive it home at about 20 miles per hour, but it was an easy drive. I've started tinkering around the unit a little bit more and am starting to work on getting the monitor mounted to my tractor so that I'll be able to get rolling. I'm planning on cutting some throwaway hay (mostly weeds) in the next few days just so I can get some practice without risking anything.

Re: Going to look at a small round baler - any opinions on a New Idea 484?

Well, just to keep going, I have not rolled anything with it yet, but I do have the parts and connectors I need to get the roller hooked up to my tractor. In the meantime, I found out that a guy here at work has the exact same roller and he brought me the operators and parts manuals, so now I've got some documentation to look over before I just go crazy.

If anybody needs a scanned copy of the manuals for this gizmo, just let me know. Thanks.

Re: Going to look at a small round baler - any opinions on a New Idea 484?

Well, during my final pre-use inspection I found a bearing that was going bad on the pickup shaft, so I decided to go ahead and replace it. Luckily, it was a $12 part available at our local farm store (isn't the interent a wonderful thing - I was able to cross-reference the New Idea part number with a standard part number for an SKF bearing). Anyway, that was just a couple of hours to fix, but I did find out what caused it - hay and string had wound up on the pickup shaft and was packed in there tight, pushing out on the bearing. It took about as long to clear that out as it did to change the bearing. This lead me to check the other side. The bearing seems fine, but I did have to clear out a similar, but smaller, bunch of hay/string on that side.

I've got about an acre and half of weeds cut, ready for raking this afternoon. I'll either get it raked tonight and take a shot at rolling, or I'll rake tonight and roll tomorrow - depends on what time I get out of work. I'm going to try it with my DK 45 and see what happens.